MANAGER James Rowberry doesn’t think teams have found the blueprint to stop Newport County AFC as he eyes a home run to get their promotion challenge back on track.

The Exiles have dropped from third to seventh in League Two after back-to-back defeats on the road to rivals at the top of the table.

On Saturday they lost 2-0 to runaway leaders Forest Green Rovers and on Tuesday night they were edged out 1-0 at Northampton, who climbed to third thanks to Fraser Horsfall’s prodded finish from a corner with eight minutes to go.

County had a golden chance to hit the front in a tight contest with half an hour to go only for 20-goal striker Dom Telford to be denied in a one-on-one while Josh Pask failed to level with a late header.

“It’s a disappointing result because I think that a draw would have been a fair reflection of the game,” said Rowberry. “They had chances and we had chances but to get done at a set play was disappointing.

“Northampton force you back and put the ball in behind you, so if you don’t get your clearances right then they end up on top of you and creating opportunities on goal [from set plays].

“We had some decent chances and they made a few good blocks in the first half. We just didn’t defend that key moment of the game.”

South Wales Argus: DENIED: Josh Pask is frustrated at County's defeatDENIED: Josh Pask is frustrated at County's defeat

County now start a run of five games on the spin at Rodney Parade that will shape their promotion challenge.

Oldham, fresh from successive wins after the return of former Exiles boss John Sheridan, visit on Saturday followed by Mansfield, Tranmere, Forest Green and Bristol Rovers.

“Of course it’s not ideal having two defeats on the bounce but we were playing two teams at the top of the table,” said Rowberry.

“We’ve just got to learn from our mistakes and get on with it. We’ve got five home games and it will be important for us to have our fans right behind us.

“It is an important time and we have to go game to game. We’ve got 16 games and 10 at home, which will be really important for us.

“Oldham will be a tough game. They are in a relegation fight and a manager is coming back to his old club. It’s not going to be easy, no game is in this division.”

County have played some dashing football under Rowberry but were stifled by Forest Green in testing conditions then failed to really stretch the Cobblers.

Asked if teams are starting to suss out their style, the manager said: “I don’t think so, but we’ve got to be better in what we do.

“We might have to build with a different amount of players, find a different overload to try and play through the middle of the pitch, or find different ways to get in behind a back line.

“Sometimes the execution of the pass wasn’t right to get in behind Northampton because we felt that we could have done. We didn’t exploit their back line to the effect that we normally do, but that’s football and we’ll learn from it and go again.

“It depends how you want to look at it – we’ve lost two on the spin or we have won four out of six! We’ve just got to go again and focus on Oldham.”